Alistair Houghton meets KEITH and ANNE O’CONNOR, of Wirral renewable energy firm, Fleetsolve

HE LAUGHS about being born with a silver spanner in his mouth, but Keith O’Connor’s determination to turn his passion for engines into a sustainable business is no joke.

Keith and his wife, Anne, founded Fleetsolve in 2002 and have – without external funding or publicity – designed their own technology and grown Fleetsolve into one of the region’s most successful renewable energy firms.

Fleetsolve, run from picturesque Thornton Hough, in central Wirral, builds liquid biomass CHP (combined heat and power) systems that turn waste fuels into energy.

Its CHP systems power buildings from supermarkets to hotels, with clients including Tesco, hotel chain Radisson Blu, and the Prison Service. Its recycled fuels, meanwhile, have been used by bus companies, hauliers and even motorsports firms.

Fleetsolve has generally kept a low profile with Keith and his team focusing on developing technology.

But now, with several high-profile contracts under their belts, Keith and Anne have started spreading the word.

She said: “Because this technology is so innovative, and because it’s going to raise the bar in the renewables sector, every time we raised our head, people would show an interest.

“So we’ve deliberately kept a low profile. But now is the time.”

Keith and Anne, who married in 1996, first met at school in Wirral. The young Keith already knew what career he would follow.

“I’ve had a passion for engines and fuel all my life,” he smiled. “I was born with a silver spanner in my mouth.

“I did my apprenticeship, and had a rewarding career at TNT that took me to various opportunities around the world, but focusing on fuel efficiency across the whole fleet. But, by 2000, my career was really at a pinnacle in the industry I was in.”

Keith moved to the Midlands, joining Nightspeed before becoming a director of CH Jones, the largest fuel brokering firm in the UK.

But, two years later, he and Anne, who had started her career in the civil service before moving into the charity sector, decided to turn Keith’s passion for engines into a business.

He said: “When you gave a passion for something, it becomes a distraction all the time unless you release it. And the only way I could get that passion fulfilled was to do it myself.”

Anne added: “Keith had ideas, and unless we utilised those ideas, he was probably going to go pop. I’m probably the only person who can get that idea and make it into something.”

So Keith and Anne set about building Fleetsolve from scratch.

“We raised capital by selling everything,” he said.

“We started out, took a leap of blind faith, and made that investment in technology.”

As Keith worked behind the scenes to develop Fleetsolve’s technology, he and Anne offered their services as R&D consultants to the green sector.

They worked from their house in Prenton, while Keith travelled to and from laboratories around the country that were working on his technology.

Keith said: “By designing everything we could ensure the quality and reliability of our engines.

“We have a motto – we don’t practise on our clients.”

They are proud they have been able to grow the company with no external funding.

“I have experience seeing companies get third-party investment,” said Keith. “While it’s exciting to see that very speedy growth, there can be casualties. We didn’t want to be part of that.”

In 2007, Fleetsolve’s CHP technology came out of the development stage and could be sold around the country. That year, it started a relationship with supermarket giant Tesco that continues to this day.

Last month, Fleetsolve installed a CHP unit to power Tesco’s new store in Welshpool, Mid-Wales.

“We’re very proud of our relationship with Tesco, because they’re really focusing on true carbon reduction,” said Keith.

“They’re doing it while other people are talking about it.

“They were very excited about what we did. They’ve given us so much repeat business, because they’ve been delighted.

“We worked with them on their first low-carbon store in Cheetham Hill, and on their first zero-carbon store in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire.”

Fleetsolve’s fuels – “end of waste products”, as they are catchily called by the Environment Agency – include waste oils from manufacturers and the pharmaceutical industry, which Fleetsolve processes.

Fleetsolve offers what Keith calls “a full turn-key package”. It supplies fuel for its engines, and monitors and maintains them remotely.

Keith and Anne say they are prepared to be picky when it comes to choosing clients. Customers have to be committed to the technology, not just looking to tick off boxes on a green policy.

“It’s not just a badge,” said Keith. “They’ve got to be committed.

“If you have an understanding client, the technology will work for them. If you don’t, it’s just a box on the ground, and it will be treated like a box on the ground.

He added: “We plough our own furrow. We could grow quicker, but bigger isn’t necessarily better.”

Fleetsolve announced this month that it had designed and installed a bespoke system at the £22m Radisson Blu Hotel at East Midlands Airport.

And it installed a CHP system at the Harrogate International Centre, which is aiming to be Europe’s greenest conference centre. The system will provide electricity and heating for a five-hall conference centre, a hotel and council offices.

Fleetsolve designed engines for 50 “bio-buses” used by Stagecoach UK, and worked on DHL’s transport fleet.

The company also advises Government-funded body Energy Efficiency in Motorsports, and developed an engine to show that a racing truck could be converted to bio-fuel.

Fleetsolve’s head office employs 17, but that will grow to 30 over the next year as the company grows.

It has two manufacturing plants – an engine and sub-assembly plant in Ellesmere Port and a final assembly site in Birkenhead. It works with 25 sub-contractors locally, and has a network of partners nationally.

Keith added: “We have tried to get all our suppliers from within 50 miles of Wirral. The bulk of our manufacturers are solely in Wirral.”

Since it first took its products to the market, Fleetsolve has seen strong growth.

Anne said: “This year, we’re forecasting £7.5m. That’s up from £5m last year, £3.5m the year before, and £1.5m. We’re bucking the trend.”

Keith added: “We’ve delivered despite the recession by sticking to our core technology, because our technology has multiple solutions.

“To ensure that we keep reinvesting back into the company to continue our growth.

“We will grow and we will continue to be the best at what we do. There’s no compromise. We will continue to deliver innovation.”

Keith may have made his love for engines into a career, but they still play a part in his life outside work.

He smiled: “I still have a passion for anything with engines in – cars, trucks, buses, motorbikes”. And the O’Connors’ passion for green energy is such that, even on holiday, they find themselves evangelising for renewable energy.

“We’ve been going to the Eden Project, in Cornwall, since it was a hole in the ground,” said Keith.

“But when we went in 2006, we saw their tractors were running on diesel – it was obvious by the black plumes of smoke. We thought our technology could help them, so we contacted the board.”

Fleetsolve worked with New Holland to develop the UK’s first bio-fuel tractors, which serve the attraction.

Now the O’Connors want to pass that passion on to new employees, who can, in turn, pass it on to potential customers.

Keith said: “When we’re recruiting to the business, we try to develop a passion in our people for what they’re doing, to ensure they know what we’re trying to achieve for the business.

“We don’t want them to have an ‘it’ll do’ attitude. ‘Good enough’ is not an option.”